Company And Director Of Nursery Fined $42,500 For Breaking Plant-import Quarantine Rules

The company and director of a nursery who illegally took 220 imported plants out of quarantine after just one day, has been fined $42,500.

Elliott Wholesale Nursery Limited is a Ministry for Primary Industries-registered Post Entry Quarantine (PEQ) facility. Under the Biosecurity Act, imported plants should be in quarantine for 3 months.

Jeffrey Wayne Elliott (65) and Elliott Wholesale Nursery Limited were sentenced in the Christchurch District Court today (September 25) on one charge under the Biosecurity Act. They had earlier pleaded guilty following a successful prosecution by the Ministry for Primary Industries.

“Mr Elliot is highly experienced and knew the quarantine regulations. These rules are there for a reason – to protect New Zealand from any potential pests and diseases which could be a risk to our biosecurity,” says MPI Regional Manager, Investigations South, Gerald Anderson.

In September 2022, Elliott’s Wholesale Nursery imported 600 Nandina domestica tissue culture – an evergreen shrub from Australia. The plants were unpacked and placed in a Post Entry Quarantine (PEQ) facility, where they needed to remain for three months. However, after just one day, Mr Elliot removed 220 of these plants, placing them in a non-PEQ area.

“To avoid detection and to circumnavigate the biosecurity rules designed to protect New Zealand from potentially unwanted pests and diseases, he replaced these plants with similar looking domestic plants, which he admitted doing to an employee who questioned him.

“When an MPI inspector conducted an audit, the nursery passed because at the time, the inspector believed the swapped plants were the imported Nandina plants from Australia.”

While Mr Elliot declined to be formally interviewed by MPI, he admitted to MPI investigators that he knew he had broken the law.

No pests or diseases were found on the plants that were taken out of the quarantine facility.

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